LEADER is a rural development / funding programme available to farmers, foresters, community enterprises and rural-based businesses. Our Local Action Group (LAG) has secured £1.6m to run the current LEADER Programme between 2015 and 2020. There are 6 priority areas for investment: Farming productivity, Micro and small businesses (including farm diversification), Tourism / the visitor economy, Forestry productivity, Rural services and, Culture and …

Dear All, Welcome to our new website, currently in draft form but hopefully still useful. We have tried to focus it’s structure and content on helping potential applicants really understand what’s involved, what a successful project looks like, and keeping all those interested parties updated. Please bookmark this page and feel free to send …

We are also now holding individual one to one applicant support sessions to provide tailored project support on the first Tuesday of the month. These sessions will help you to finalise your application documents with a project sponsor to help you to meet your application deadline! These sessions will be allocated on a first come …

We are holding our next Fieldfare LEADER Programme information and application event on Tuesday 5 June at 10:00 in Winchester. Providing useful hints and tips to help you on your application journey! Please book your place:- https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fieldfare-leader-programme-information-workshop-tickets-45756033528 Future dates to be added shortly.

The Fieldfare Local Development Strategy is an evidence base that enables the group to identify ways to help the local business community. Current projects include: Support for Local Food & Drink producers Mobile abattoir project Access to public procurement opportunities Local food charter Farm food hub destination Rural Broadband & mobile coverage Providing real time …

Funds under this priority can be used to provide grants for developing or starting rural micro & small businesses, and for farm diversification projects. These grants are for: micro and small businesses based in rural locations, including social enterprises; people who want to start a business that is in a rural area; and farming or horticultural businesses …

Funds under this priority will support a wide range of farm investments. They are particularly for businesses that want to invest in innovative business practices and new technologies to help them become more sustainable and productive. Any application will have to demonstrate how it contributes to the growth of the business and preferably job creation. …

The kinds of tourism business start-up and business development projects that are likely to attract funding will be those developing high quality visitor products and services that link tourism providers, extend the tourism season and encourage visitors to stay. These grants could be for: new or existing micro or small businesses (this includes farm businesses …